The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for retrieving information that is in the form of shorthand notation and, in particular, to a method and apparatus that responds to the entry of information in the form of longhand notation by accessing and presenting to a user an item of shorthand information that is associated with the entered longhand information.
To say that communications today is light years ahead of communications a generation ago is as unremarkable, but yet truthful, an observation as saying that traveling by jets is a vast improvement over the horse and carriage. And yet in spite of the gargantuan technological leaps that have been made already over the past few decades, it seems that the frenetic pace at which science and technology expand our collective storehouse of knowledge continues to grow unabated. Look to almost any newspaper or almost any news channel and you will almost assuredly come across an abundance of stories proclaiming the "latest" advance in technology. No doubt the pursuit and application of scientific knowledge has supplanted all other institutions as the primary means by which the material condition of humanity is improved.
In perhaps no other realm of human action has this great wave of technological advance achieved more improvement than in the way we communicate with each other. In less than fifty years, we have moved far apace of the rotary phone to a world where communication through wireless and cellular telephones, satellites, modems, fiber optics, fax machines, and the Internet has become commonplace. Moreover, the content of modern communications is undergoing a fundamental shift as well; it is projected that in the near future the amount of data communication on a global basis will exceed the amount of voice communication. Industry is rapidly transforming the underlying telecommunications infrastructure in order to adjust to this seemingly imminent sea change.
The obvious efficiencies and enhanced convenience that these improvements have wrought have not come without certain new burdens, however. Despite the speed at which one person can now reach any other person almost anywhere in the world, a person wishing to reach another person must still enter a particular number or identifier that uniquely identifies the ultimate destination of the communication. By expanding the ways in which two people (or two computers) can communicate, the progress of technology has also increased the burden each person has in remembering multiple numbers or unique character identifiers. Thus, a person not only has to remember (or at least write down) multiple telephone numbers, but he also has to keep track of fax numbers, cellular numbers, and e-mail addresses, for example. For purposes of this discussion, any character string, whether numeric, alphabetical, or alphanumeric, that is used to reach a particular destination through any communication medium shall be referred to as an identifier.
Previously proposed systems have been developed to address this identifier "overload." Such systems allow users to associate each identifier with a particular shorthand notation. For example, for some time modern telephones have allowed callers to dial pre-stored telephone numbers by entering a simplified combination of keys intended to represent associated telephone numbers. More sophisticated systems retrieve and activate pre-stored identifiers based on a person's voice or a computer keyboard entry. For example, a caller may speak his friend's name into a telephone, and after recognizing the spoken name, the telephone retrieves a telephone number associated with the spoken name and makes a call based on the retrieved number. In computers, a person may type his friend's name and the computer will retrieve and use the friend's pre-stored e-mail address to send a message. These systems are also useful in paging systems, fax transmissions, and any other technology through which people may communicate with each other.
Such systems can facilitate the use of such communication mediums only if the users remember these shorthand notations. If a user forgets that another person's cell phone can be reached merely by speaking his name, the user will of course need to remember the actual cell phone number, or at least retrieve it from some recording medium. As a result, the ease of use and attendant efficiencies of such systems will deteriorate significantly if enough people forget their shorthand notations. What is therefore needed is a system that can remind users who use identifiers in longhand fashion that a shorthand notation for accessing the same communication service is available.